They were up to 8.2 million in front of their television.
The Crunch allowed France 2 to strike a blow, achieving the best audience of the last weekend with 6.44 million viewers on average.
Excellent scores, unpublished since 2012 for a match of the Blues in the Six Nations Tournament, that the boss of sports of France Televisions, Laurent-Eric Le Lay, attributes to the good results of the men of Fabien Galthié, opposed to Wales this Saturday evening (9 p.m.), and a little to sanitary constraints.
How do you explain the good audiences of the XV of France?
LAURENT-ÉRIC LE LAY.
It's a France team that wins, even if it doesn't win every match.
She is dynamic, we want to see her play.
She loses in England, but at the end of one of the best rugby matches in recent years.
This team, we want to see what it offers on a field each time.
Audiences were less good in recent years ...
The matches of the XV of France in the Six Nations Tournament are an institution, even if a potential Grand Slam attracts more people than defeats.
These meetings attract far beyond the fans of rugby and show that major sporting events bring the French together.
When you have this interest, more of the spectacle, it gives very strong audiences.
This XV of France is also starting to have leading players, and therefore easily identifiable by the public.
This is proof that we have a winning team and that we can talk about doing the Grand Slam again.
It was less obvious before.
Twickenham (England), March 13.
The England-France match, lost to the wire by Mathieu Jalibert's teammates, was watched by more than 6 million viewers.
AFP / Adrian Dennis
The game against England came at a time when France was on curfew.
Does it play?
The confinement has favored the increase of television audiences, this is something that was seen last year, even if it has subsided a bit lately.
Obviously, it is easier to be at home with the curfew and if you are offered a sporting event in the clear, you will be more likely to watch it.
Now, that is not what we want to build the future on, because this situation should, we hope, not last too long.
France-Wales is scheduled for prime-time, a first for a Tournament match this year.
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This is not the first time that we have had matches for the France team in prime-time.
There, we will therefore have a sporting event facing entertainment on TF1 and a fiction
(Editor's note: Commissioner Magellan)
on France 3. It is complementary, we will see on Sunday morning which attracted the most public, but there is no there is no reason why the match cannot achieve a good audience.
It's important to put this kind of meeting in prime-time, it allows us to attract an audience that is less used to watching this kind of matches, I am thinking in particular of the youngest viewers.
Through these matches, they can gain loyalty and strengthen the following audience of followers in the future.
